|
|
 |
| |
|
Home > Baseball > MLB Hall of Famers > Joe Cronin
Joe Cronin
Baseball is an outdoor sport in which a pitcher pitches a hard, fist sized ball to the hitting area of a batter. The batter hits the hard ball with a tapered, smooth, cylindrical bat made up of wood or metal. The batsman scores by running counter-clockwise within the four markers called the bases arranged at the corners of a diamond. Baseball is sometimes called hardball to differentiate it from similar games such as softball.
Joe Cronin was born on Friday, October 12, 1906 in San Francisco, California. Cronin was 19 years old when he broke into the big leagues on April 29, 1926, with the Pittsburgh Pirates. His height was five feet eleven and a half inches with a weight of 180 pounds. For 14 years, his signature appeared on all the baseballs used in the American League. He was one of baseball's boy wonder managers when he piloted the 1933 Senators to an American League pennant at the age of 27, a year younger than Washington's first boy wonder Bucky Harris, was when he took Washington to its first pennant in 1924.
He came up as a slow and clumsy shortstop for Pittsburgh. In 1930, in his second full season, he had career highs in batting average 0.346 and Runs Batted In. But at the end of the 1934 season, Griffith sold his new nephew to the Red Sox for 225,000 dollars, the highest amount paid for a single player. Griffith arranged, however, for Cronin to receive a five-year contract good for 50,000 dollars per year. Cronin loved hitting in Fenway Park. Three times he registered slugging percentages over 0.500, with a career high of 0.536 in 1938, the year he led the American League in doubles with 51. He hit a career-high 24 Home Runs in 1940, the year he also led the league in putouts and assists.
Unfortunately he died on 7 September 1984, in Osterville, Massachusetts. He believed in hard work and complete teamwork. He was totally dedicated in his play.
Back to MLB Hall of Famers
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|